Photo courtesy of Dot Wong
I attended ASIA’s second ConversASIANS session without the intention of writing about the event, but I felt so welcomed and validated in my unique experience as an Asian-American that I knew I had to spotlight this important work. As a biracial Filipina-American student, I constantly seek connections to my heritage, oftentimes feeling like an imposter to my own identity, but ASIA is an invaluable resource for students experiencing similar feelings to find a community that cares.
Leading up to AANHPI heritage month, ASIA kickstarted their ConversASIANS sessions, meetings open to all students to foster conversations about Asian identities and experiences. An important theme throughout the meeting was emphasizing individual experiences under the vast umbrella of Asian identity. Co-Chairs Alex Reyes ‘23 and Jangael Rosales ‘25, searching for inspiration from ASIA’s past, “rebooted” the “Connversasians” event from the 2018 e-board.
Rosales dug into the archives and found Facebook posts from 2018-19 advertising the events. “Seeing the topics they were discussing on the graphic alone made me interested,” said Rosales. “I [knew] this was something that Alex and I wanted to bring into ASIA – having a space for Asian-identifying students to discuss cultural, political, social, and academic issues that concern Asian-identifying students. So we explored options on how to facilitate dialogue, got rid of the extra ‘n’ […], and revamped ConversASIANS.”
ASIA brought catering from Mirch Masala for the dinnertime event on Apr. 26, 2023, which was co-presented by the Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), Race and Ethnicity Programs (REP), Men of Color Alliance (MOCA), Las Voces Unidas (LVU), and International Student Association (ISA). Students gathered in Hood Dining room, with club advisor Dot Wang overseeing the student-run program. A slideshow was projected at the front of the room, and once participants were full of naan and rice, Reyes began the meeting with icebreakers (“What fruit would you be?”) to get the conversation flowing.
Then, she played the video “Adam Ruins Everything – How America Created the ‘Model Minority’ Myth,” a truTV video from 2019 that unpacks the history and longstanding implications of the myth in America. After, we divided into small groups and discussed what we liked and disliked about how the video presented the information, such as its focus primarily on East Asian ethnicities even though the continent is so vast. We also discussed how the myth has impacted our own lives, keeping in mind our own positionalities and varying experiences but finding common ground nonetheless.
The sessions were quickly organized, which meant that advertising and outreach was limited, but the Co-Chairs were pleased with the results. Reyes reflected, “Even though our first session’s turnout was smaller than we hoped, it ended up helping contribute to a more low-key, intimate kind of conversation, which is also good. Our second one definitely had a lot more people, which was heartwarming! I think our sponsorship from LVU, ISA, and MOCA helped, too—which I was really happy about, because I want to make sure ASIA has events with other affinity groups in the future, since supporting other communities of color at a PWI is something very important to me.”
Rosales added, “Given everything that happened on campus back in March, I was thinking about everything that was disrupted during COVID and the effects it has on the campus community, more specifically, how it impacted affinity-based identity groups and how we are viewed to the college community. It impacted how I viewed ASIA as an organization before I joined the executive board and how I perceived ASIA’s place on campus. It made me question the type of community ASIA has established and I didn’t know whether or not there was a community in the first place. I also initially questioned whether or not I was welcome in ASIA due to my Southeast Asian identity and I don’t want other Asian-identifying students to go through this same notion, which is why I joined the E-Board in the first place. “
Reyes also emphasized the importance of creating these spaces at Conn is for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. “I think it’s important to first mention how this place is a PWI. I think it’s also important to note how this school’s representation of Asian identities, academically, is mainly East Asian… hence, the Department of East Asian Identities and Cultures. Another thing that I think is important to note is how the way I see it – the Asian population at Conn – is a bit fragmented… like, international students versus domestic students, or adopted students versus not-adopted students. But, I think it’d be nice if we could have some sort of space in which Asian-identifying students can get together, regardless of where they’re from or how they’ve been raised, while also keeping in mind the very unique and diverse identities that stem from the label ‘Asian’ itself.”
“Coming from Chicago, it was more convenient and accessible for me to express and embrace my Filipino identity because I’m surrounded by a large Asian population and resources,” said Rosales. “Coming into Conn, I felt like navigating my intersecting identities as an FGLI (first-generation, low-income) Asian American college student has predetermined the type of adversities I was going to face at Conn, and it made me afraid of how I took up space at a predominately white institute, more specifically at a small liberal arts school, where the demographic breakup of Asian students are significantly smaller compared to a larger institution. ASIA means a lot to me and I know affinity-based groups like ours are important at Conn to bring people together through commonalities and learn from each others’ experiences and differences.”
Reyes and Rosales thank Dulmarie Irizarry, the Program Director of the Division of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, Laura Todorov, the Assistant Director of the Center of the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity, and their co-sponsoring institutions for helping build a valued, important community space on campus.
